What is the best SUV around 7 million?

Re@l_B · February 13, 2019

Hello Folks,

I'm planning to buy an SUV which I expected to be reliable, has less maintenance cost, fewer problems and has a suspension system which provides a smoother ride. My budget is around 7 million.

In addition, I will do some casual offroading once in a while and it's better if the resell value is good. Following are my contenders.

1. Fortuner 2012

2. MonteroSport 2012

3. Harrier 240G 2008/2009 (Crossover)

4. Lexus RX350 (Crossover)

Your suggestions are highly appreciated.

iRage · February 14, 2019

Fortuner and Montero SPorts have the traditional body on frame setup (where the frame/chassis is based on the pick up truck of the brand...Hilux and Triton). As such the ride is somewhat hard and sometimes even rather bouncy. I own a Fortuner (in Vietnam) and have used the Pajero Sport a lot. The Fortuner is a lot more better in terms of ride and build than the Mitsubishi (I like the front seats of the MonteroSport but the rear seats of the Fortuner more). Do not expect Prado and Pajero kind of refinement from ether of these. On the plus side...these vehicle have pretty simple tech. The plastics, etc...feel flimsy (especially the Montero Sport) but you feel like you can throw the thing in to a mud pit and then a sand pit and still keep going and if it breaks wrap it with some duct tape and then start going again.

Comfort wise the Harrier and the RX are miles ahead of the above two. They feel more luxurious and have more creature comfort. The Harrier you are looking at is the U30 series and I am guessing the RX you are looking at is the L10 series. Again both are reliable cars....if you go for the Hybrid then obviously you have the Hybrid related issues you will have to look in to before purchase and maintenance after purchase.

The Fortuner and Montero Sport are obviously more capable off road whilst the Harrier and RX will do well on modest mud and sand trails. So it all depends on what kind of occasional off roading you are talking about. My guess is what ever it is its nothing extreme and something really modest. because if you were in to serious offroading you would already know what you want

Performance wise...well....handling wise the Fortuner and Montero have a lot of body roll. The petrol engine vairants which are in the 2700cc range (in SL and Asia for the most part) are lethargic but gets the vehicle moving from A to B....also the same engines will be stressed heavily if you do take it on a serious off roading course but will do okay in normal ones. Diesel variants are preferred with a lot of torque or the larger V6 petrol variants. The RX and the Harrier...the RX will feel a lot peppier than the Harried with the larger engine but the Harrier also is not too bad. Also has less body roll than the Fortuner and Montero Sport and is a lot smoother in acceleration.

Edited February 14, 2019 by iRage

vag2 · February 13, 2019

none of the above are SUVs nor provide smooth comfortable rides. European,US SAVs give smooth ride and handling closer to a car. Its coming from the suspension with many control-arms and mounts.

Edited February 13, 2019 by vag2

RWD · February 14, 2019

Look for a Forster XT. Holds its value fairly well and the symmetrical AWD is more than capable for some mild off roading.

Re@l_B · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 1:28 AM, iRage said:
Fortuner and Montero SPorts have the traditional body on frame setup (where the frame/chassis is based on the pick up truck of the brand...Hilux and Triton). As such the ride is somewhat hard and sometimes even rather bouncy. I own a Fortuner (in Vietnam) and have used the Pajero Sport a lot. The Fortuner is a lot more better in terms of ride and build than the Mitsubishi (I like the front seats of the MonteroSport but the rear seats of the Fortuner more). Do not expect Prado and Pajero kind of refinement from ether of these. On the plus side...these vehicle have pretty simple tech. The plastics, etc...feel flimsy (especially the Montero Sport) but you feel like you can throw the thing in to a mud pit and then a sand pit and still keep going and if it breaks wrap it with some duct tape and then start going again.
Comfort wise the Harrier and the RX are miles ahead of the above two. They feel more luxurious and have more creature comfort. The Harrier you are looking at is the U30 series and I am guessing the RX you are looking at is the L10 series. Again both are reliable cars....if you go for the Hybrid then obviously you have the Hybrid related issues you will have to look in to before purchase and maintenance after purchase.
The Fortuner and Montero Sport are obviously more capable off road whilst the Harrier and RX will do well on modest mud and sand trails. So it all depends on what kind of occasional off roading you are talking about. My guess is what ever it is its nothing extreme and something really modest. because if you were in to serious offroading you would already know what you want [emoji4]

Thanks a lot for the comprehensive answer big brother.

Yes I'm not a serious off-roader, and will use the vehicle for daily rides more. So the comfortability is somewhat important also. I think Harrier would be a good choice.

Thanks again.

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kush · February 14, 2019

2012-2013 CRV might fit your requirements too

Newer than the the Toyota and Lexus very comfy and bullet proof built quality / realiability

You should be able to find a decent mileage one with company maintained history

tiv · February 14, 2019

Montero sport

I have one for a while now, not that cheap in terms of fuel but maintenance is very decent and can run high mileage easy. Comfort is not a big plus point though.

Off road it can easily do what a land cruiser / defender does,

Edited February 14, 2019 by tiv

Re@l_B · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 8:26 AM, tiv said:

Montero sport

I have one for a while now, not that cheap in terms of fuel but maintenance is very decent and can run high mileage easy. Comfort is not a big plus point though.

Off road it can easily do what a land cruiser / defender does,

Expand

@tiv I saw someone mentioned in this forum about a brake pad issue in MS which caused him to replace brake pads every 10,000KM. According to him, it was not random as it happened to 2 monteros they owned. In addition, I saw an ad to sell 2011 MS with 86,000KM ODO which he replaced a considerable list of items as attached. So I was thinking of giving up on MS

Re@l_B · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 1:28 AM, iRage said:

Fortuner and Montero SPorts have the traditional body on frame setup (where the frame/chassis is based on the pick up truck of the brand...Hilux and Triton). As such the ride is somewhat hard and sometimes even rather bouncy. I own a Fortuner (in Vietnam) and have used the Pajero Sport a lot. The Fortuner is a lot more better in terms of ride and build than the Mitsubishi (I like the front seats of the MonteroSport but the rear seats of the Fortuner more). Do not expect Prado and Pajero kind of refinement from ether of these. On the plus side...these vehicle have pretty simple tech. The plastics, etc...feel flimsy (especially the Montero Sport) but you feel like you can throw the thing in to a mud pit and then a sand pit and still keep going and if it breaks wrap it with some duct tape and then start going again.

Comfort wise the Harrier and the RX are miles ahead of the above two. They feel more luxurious and have more creature comfort. The Harrier you are looking at is the U30 series and I am guessing the RX you are looking at is the L10 series. Again both are reliable cars....if you go for the Hybrid then obviously you have the Hybrid related issues you will have to look in to before purchase and maintenance after purchase.

The Fortuner and Montero Sport are obviously more capable off road whilst the Harrier and RX will do well on modest mud and sand trails. So it all depends on what kind of occasional off roading you are talking about. My guess is what ever it is its nothing extreme and something really modest. because if you were in to serious offroading you would already know what you want

Performance wise...well....handling wise the Fortuner and Montero have a lot of body roll. The petrol engine vairants which are in the 2700cc range (in SL and Asia for the most part) are lethargic but gets the vehicle moving from A to B....also the same engines will be stressed heavily if you do take it on a serious off roading course but will do okay in normal ones. Diesel variants are preferred with a lot of torque or the larger V6 petrol variants. The RX and the Harrier...the RX will feel a lot peppier than the Harried with the larger engine but the Harrier also is not too bad. Also has less body roll than the Fortuner and Montero Sport and is a lot smoother in acceleration.

Expand

@iRage Do you have an opinion about KIA Sorento? Is it better than others at least from the comfort? Because I know the selling price would not be that grt compared to Toyotas and not reliable as Japanese vehicles.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Re@l_B

kush · February 14, 2019

These will be routine maintenance for any vehicle with such mileage, you will have to do this with any new care although what needs replacement will vary with the engine / drive train type etc.

Saving could have been made if the service/ replacement were done by specialist rather than agent.

Re@l_B · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 9:31 AM, kush said:

These will be routine maintenance for any vehicle with such mileage, you will have to do this with any new care although what needs replacement will vary with the engine / drive train type etc.

Saving could have been made if the service/ replacement were done by specialist rather than agent.

Expand

hmm... I own a GP5 with nearly 70,000KM. But I never replaced any parts apart from regular services. My main interest over buying a RAW engine is to get rid of hybrid-related maintenance. But hybrid maintenance cost is not that high compared to a RAW engine it seems.

kush · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 9:40 AM, Re@l_B said:

hmm... I own a GP5 with nearly 70,000KM. But I never replaced any parts apart from regular services. My main interest over buying a RAW engine is to get rid of hybrid-related maintenance. But hybrid maintenance cost is not that high compared to a RAW engine it seems.

Expand

Monte Sport has a engine from stone age that is why you need to replace the timing belt and the associated parts

Your GP5 also will have its routine replacements in time to come

tiv · February 14, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 9:24 AM, Re@l_B said:

@tiv I saw someone mentioned in this forum about a brake pad issue in MS which caused him to replace brake pads every 10,000KM. According to him, it was not random as it happened to 2 monteros they owned. In addition, I saw an ad to sell 2011 MS with 86,000KM ODO which he replaced a considerable list of items as attached. So I was thinking of giving up on MS

Expand

This is the oil change, with timing belt change where all the oil seals and pulleys are changed, recommended to do around 80-100,000km

Agents go at this rather flamboyantly

They've done a liqui moly purge too I did this few weeks ago,

Coolant change as well and egr clean/ tuneup,

Kinda routine maintenance at this mileage, for any vehicle

I've never had this brake pad issue, we also have a triton with the same brakes

My colleagues have 3 and no one mentioned this, probably the guy had a warp and was too stingy to change the rotors with are costly.

iRage · February 15, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 9:24 AM, Re@l_B said:

@tiv I saw someone mentioned in this forum about a brake pad issue in MS which caused him to replace brake pads every 10,000KM. According to him, it was not random as it happened to 2 monteros they owned. In addition, I saw an ad to sell 2011 MS with 86,000KM ODO which he replaced a considerable list of items as attached. So I was thinking of giving up on MS

Expand

These are part of routine scheduled preemptive services for any car....usually done within 75-100K kms....The Montero Sport having a somewhat older engine design the 75-100K service is a bit more extensive at that point (most new engine schedules break it up along a bit more....). In Sri Lanka the agents do charge a bit of a higher premium (its also a side effect of having really cheap parts and third rate garages which people run after....the smaller number of parts and repairs they do they have to charge higher to make up for overheads as well as try to make a profit...)

On 2/14/2019 at 9:31 AM, Re@l_B said:

@iRage Do you have an opinion about KIA Sorento? Is it better than others at least from the comfort? Because I know the selling price would not be that grt compared to Toyotas and not reliable as Japanese vehicles.

Expand

I have not used one extensively...but a few of my friends here in Vietnam got them in bulk about 3 years ago (a diplomatic shipment for personal use). They are nice vehicles and the diesel variants move like a bloody bat out of hell...decent ride. However somethings in the interior feel a little bit flimsy when compared to the X-Trail, RAV4, CRV, etc for the Japanese and European markets....

Re@l_B · February 21, 2019

On 2/14/2019 at 8:26 AM, tiv said:

Montero sport

I have one for a while now, not that cheap in terms of fuel but maintenance is very decent and can run high mileage easy. Comfort is not a big plus point though.

Off road it can easily do what a land cruiser / defender does,

Expand

@tiv I saw you decided not to buy a MS a while back according to this thread -

What has changed your mind?

tiv · February 21, 2019

On 2/21/2019 at 9:58 AM, Re@l_B said:

@tiv I saw you decided not to buy a MS a while back according to this thread -

What has changed your

Expand

Well I never got to that review or the continuation of that thread

I had just sold my hilux, and since reviews were so Much of a let down, Actually what happened was we bought a 3.2 Montero, which we still have, then another L200 which we still have in the distant family,

Thereafter after a bit of orienting with the agents I managed to find a Montero sport which replaced the l200,

The issue is mainly poor maintenance

The pulling power is mostly due to using normal diesel and blocked egr, scv issues

if those bits are rectified it really pulls, almost close to our 4m41 Montero

Handling and body roll - upgraded shock absorbers and real bump stops, also tyres

Seating position and equipment no obvious difference from a montero

The factory Bridgestone tyres are hard ply.

Upgraded brakes to Brembo pads

Using all valvoline lubricants and timely changes of all

So what happened was the Montero sport was supposed to be the daily runner , then we got the v97, later on we got the montero sport which actually is the one we use most being the most economical and peppy, and even to yala

The v97 is pointlessly expensive to run and bits are also a bit costly when compared but no regrets.

Again both equally uncomfortable in comparison to even a Kei car. And unbearable in traffic due to their size.

To summarise about the KH4 Montero Sport, whatever critics and others may say

This is my experience

It's an old school off reader in a contemporary shell, extremely reliable and rather economical to run

Comfortable or not in SUV s of this genre is debatable, i would never call them comfortable

Then again I will never call them slow either

You would notice vehicles with even >200,000km in good compression now despite me being told they cant

The l200 we had with the same engine is at near 300,000km still in sufficient compression. There were days I did bear 400km a day

The bottom line is reviews aren't always the end of the world, it takes one to find out

Edited February 21, 2019 by tiv

Re@l_B · February 21, 2019

Thanks for your honest opinion.

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Re@l_B · February 22, 2019

Does anyone have a comment on Outlander 2.4L (YOM 2014)? I was thinking of going forward with a Harrier 240G or Outlander raw engine model. Appreciate your input.